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San Marcos finance director outlines FY26 budget and multi-year tax-rate choices; council set a ceiling ahead of public hearings

San Marcos Neighborhood Commission · August 20, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

City finance staff presented a structurally balanced FY26 budget and tax-rate scenarios, flagged a projected FY27 shortfall if rates remain at the no-new-revenue level, and described council-set public hearings and a breakeven rate to avoid next-year shortfalls.

John Locke, San Marcos finance director, presented the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget and three tax-rate options to the Neighborhood Commission on Aug. 20.

Locke said the city—s total operating budget is approximately $366 million and described council priorities included in the FY26 package: submission at the no-new-revenue rate (the rate that produces the same revenue on properties taxed in both years), a $200,000 increase in the Human Services Advisory Board allocation (bringing the total to $750,000), and creation of an Office of Community Support and Resource Navigation with net cost of about $50,000 using existing staff reassignments.

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